Transcribed from Goodspeed’s History of  Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketches of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, etc., etc. (Chicago and Nashville:  The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887), pp. 962-987.  See footnote below for on-line access.

H. J. PARKS, sheriff of Bradley County, was born February 12, 1842, in East Tennessee. He is the eldest of a family of four sons and three daughters of Andrew J. and Minerva (PRICE) PARKS. The father was born in East Tennessee, and was one of the first magistrates in that section. In 1838 he took an active part in removing the Indians westward. He was a farmer by occupation. His death occurred several years ago. The mother still lives; she is a daughter of Rev. Henry PRICE, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the first circuit court clerk of Bradley County. The subject of our sketch received a common school education. At the age of seventeen he volunteered in Company E, Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, Federal Army. During three years of gallant service he was neither imprisoned nor wounded. After the war he engaged in the wagon-making business, at which he worked fourteen years. Two years he was a magistrate, in 1884 was elected sheriff, and has held the office since that time. He is a warm Republican, and a member of the Masonic Order and of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, to which his first wife also belonged. In 1872 he married Miss Mary E. FINNELL, by whom he had two children: George W. and Maggie I. In 1884 our subject married Miss Emma BROWN, who is connected with the Methodist Church.

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This biography was transcribed by Sherry Pollard. We thank her for transcribing all the Goodspeed’s biographical sketches.

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